sky box without subscription. Will it work?

[jollymollie]

We are currently paying £33 per month for sky HD + entertainment + pack. I have just come out of contract and could do with losing this monthly expense. If we cancel our subscription would we still be able to use our sky box as a freesat one or would we have to do anything to get this. Would we be able to record/rewind and what channels would we have access to? Would the HD work? The freesat channels are quite limited is there any way we could add nick jr channels? I am clueless about this sort of thing!

You can have sky freesat with your existing equipment, you will need to ring them to get a viewing card. There is a one off fee of £175 to include box, dish, fitting but I'm pretty sure if you tell them you already have the equipment they should waive most of that.

We have had sky freesat for 7 years. Its got mostly the same channels as freeview, some different, but not Nick Jr, sorry. Also I think you can't use any of the sky+ functions on the box as you need to pay a subscription for that so you will need to get a separate PVR if you want to record anything.

Alternatively you could go for the other freesat You will need to buy a new box for this but you could combine it with a freesat+ box and solve the recording problem. Still no Nick Jr though.

A piece on Wikipedia says "Sky viewing cards used to access subscription services revert to acting as Freesat from Sky viewing cards upon cancellation of the subscription". So might even be free. Sky themselves say that the cards are cancelled from time to time for security and they then charge for another (yes, even to watch the Freesat channels), but no mention of what is charged - no doubt so they can push that fee up each year without having to alter any online pages.

Wiki also says there are 8 channels on the Freesat from Sky service which aren't on FreeSat (Channel 5 HD, LFC TV, Motors TV, Sony Entertainment and Sony Movies, and Viva). I have a couple of FreeSat HD boxes (planning to change the LNB [bit at end of the satellite dish 'arm'] for one able to have 4 cables connected) to be able to have both plugged in, but can confirm Channel 5 HD isn't listed on FreeSat HD box.

I stopped my sub to sky and the box worked fine.

I could access all fresat channels. No worries:)